Of Dragons and Wolves: The Parallel Journey of Dany & Bran I
Jul 15, 2016 13:21:58 GMT -5
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Post by moiaf on Jul 15, 2016 13:21:58 GMT -5
Of Dragons and Wolves: The Parallel Journey of Daenerys Targaryen and Bran Stark
Written by: MoIaF & Queen Alysanne
Written by: MoIaF & Queen Alysanne
Essay I: A Magical Awakening & A Magical Journey
Introduction
Perhaps the two most magical characters in the Song of Ice and Fire are Daenerys Targaryen and Bran Stark. These two extraordinary characters have given us some of the most interesting moments in the series from the birth of the dragons to the weirwood visions; from a treacherous journey across the unforgiving dessert of the Red Waste to a quest through the frozen tundra of the far North, we have seen through their eyes the awesome capabilities of magic as well as the awful consequences of it.
It would seem that on the surface their stories have little to do with one another, other than being children from rival families; however, they have more in common than most people think. As we delve through their arcs we begin to notice that there are many similarities, similarities that are very unique to the two of them. Both suffered near death experiences which allowed the ancient magic within them to be awoken, they have both struggled with coming to terms with their new reality as a greenseer and a dragonlord, and their adventures have expose them to things they could never have imagine.
These essays will focus almost exclusively on the magical aspects of Dany and Bran’s arcs and therefore we will not be delving too deeply into the character profile. Instead, we will discuss their shared magical experiences and how they help us, the readers, to better understand their arc as well as the magical aspects of the Song of Ice and Fire.
A Magical Awakening
In the World of Ice and Fire nothing is without a price and that most certainly includes magic. The magical awakening of Dany and Bran came with a very steep price that they both still lament, yet it was paid nonetheless. Here we will focus on the moments that triggered these awakenings: Dany’s fevered dream and Bran’s coma dream.
Let’s begin with a brief summary of their arc as they lead up to their magical awakening.
Bran
Bran is the first POV we are introduced to in A Game of Thrones, his father has taken him to view his first execution, that of a dissenter of the Nights Watch. Bran proves to be a very observant child and fills us in on what is happening but he also introduces us to his family, his brothers Robb and Jon and his father Eddard. The chapter ends with the discovery of the direwolves.
When we encounter Bran again in his second chapter he’s about to go climbing, his favorite thing to do. He tells us about how much he loves to climb, how he feels on top of the world, how he’s never fallen, how he gets to see Winterfell in a way no one else does. As Bran is about to start his climb, his direwolf howls at him as if in warning but Bran ignores him.
While exploring Winterfell from its rooftops Bran encounters a scene which will change his life forever. As he’s observing the queen engaged sexually with her brother he is caught, and thrown from the top of a tower. Miraculously he survives but falls into a deep coma, when we return to Bran’s POV once again, he’s dreaming.
Daenerys
We first meet Dany as a shy and timid girl whose only family is an abusive brother who is about to sell her to a Dothraki horse lord for the promise of an army. She is an extremely observant girl and details to us where she has been living, what she sees, and how she can read others and their intentions much better than her older brother.
Before her wedding day to khal Drogo, Dany experiences her first dragon dream, a frighting dream for her. She is being abuse by her brother like in so many other times before but suddenly a real dragon appears and she finds herself alone face to face with the dragon. On the day of her wedding she receives three dragon eggs as a wedding gift. As she beginning her harsh life with the dothraki, the lifestyle begins to take a toll on her. She begins contemplating taking her own life but on the same night she contemplates this she has her second dragon dream, in which the same dragon appears once again to her but this time instead of frightening her it heals her with its fire. This helps Dany greatly and she is able to bear her new life.
As time progresses she grows close to the dragon eggs and also becomes pregnant. Towards the end of her pregnancy khal Drogo becomes ill from an infected wound, in her desperation she asks the maige whose life she had rescued to help her husband with her magic. As the maige begins to chant Dany begins to experience labor pains and goes into labor, she loses conciseness from the pain and when we encounter her again she is dreaming.
Fly or Die!
In his dream Bran is falling from a great distance, he tells himself he will awaken before he falls but the crow flying next to him tells him he must fly or he will die. While in Dany’s dream she is walking down a long corridor at the end of which she sees her red door. Bran needs to fly away while Dany needs to run towards.
Their dreams are different but they share many of the same themes: fear, loss/forget, urgency, and transformation. The first thing we notice is the fear, Bran is afraid of falling and hoping against hope that he will wake up before he hits the ground, while Dany is afraid of what lays behind her as she tries to get away from it.
Fear
We are all afraid of dying and Dany and Bran are no different. After Bran’s fall and Dany’s miscarriage they both go into deep dream, dreams that are more than dreams, dreams where life and death are in the balance.
Bran III AGOT
"The ground was closer now, still far far away, a thousand miles away, but closer than it had been. It was cold here in the darkness. There was no sun, no stars, only the ground below coming up to smash him, and the grey mists, and the whispering voice. He wanted to cry."
~*~
“I’ll wake up when I hit the ground,” Bran told the bird.
You’ll die when you hit the ground, the crow said. It went back to eating corn.
Bran looked down. He could see mountains now, their peaks white with snow, and the silver thread of rivers in dark woods. He closed his eyes and began to cry."
~*~
“I’ll wake up when I hit the ground,” Bran told the bird.
You’ll die when you hit the ground, the crow said. It went back to eating corn.
Bran looked down. He could see mountains now, their peaks white with snow, and the silver thread of rivers in dark woods. He closed his eyes and began to cry."
The crow urges him to fly but Bran insist that he cannot fly, he does not know how, he does not have wings. Bran keeps on hoping that he'll wake up from his dream before he hits the ground but the crow won't let him believe that, the crow makes it clear that he's fly away from his eminent death.
Now let's look at what Dany experiences:
Daenerys IX AGOT
"She was walking down a long hall beneath high stone arches. She could not look behind her, must not look behind her.
The last dragon, he whispered, thin as a wisp, and was gone. She felt the dark behind her. ... The red door was so far ahead of her, and she could feel the icy breath behind, sweeping up on her. If it caught her she would die a death that was more than death, howling forever alone in the darkness. She began to run. ... don't want to wake the dragon She could feel the heat inside her, a terrible burning in her womb. .."
The last dragon, he whispered, thin as a wisp, and was gone. She felt the dark behind her. ... The red door was so far ahead of her, and she could feel the icy breath behind, sweeping up on her. If it caught her she would die a death that was more than death, howling forever alone in the darkness. She began to run. ... don't want to wake the dragon She could feel the heat inside her, a terrible burning in her womb. .."
Dany is running away from the terrible darkness that wants to engulf her, she knows if she looks back she will be lost (thus her motto “If I look back I’m lost”). Death for her would be a painful never-ending purgatory. She says that if the darkness catches her she will howl along in the darkness, while later in Bran’s chapter he describes death as “…reached for him, screaming.” A fearful thought for both, death here is animated; it’s reaching them, trying to catch them to give them an eternity of suffering.
As they are both fighting for their lives, they know that if they don’t survive this, they won’t survive at all. Both Dany and Bran are aware in a way that these dreams go beyond any dream they’ve had before, that there is more to what they are experiencing, thus enhancing their fear of what might happen if they are unable to get away.
It’s interesting that they both see death as darkness on an ice cold torment. Death as I mention earlier is animated, it’s not the sedentary darkness we are told about. Although there are many antagonist throughout the story the magical antagonist happens to be a group of beings who love the ice cold and the darkness, sentient beings who traffic in death.
*Tears
As we are discussing fear I just wanted to point out a curious comparison between the tears Dany and Bran’s shed in their respective dreams.
While Bran is so cold that his hot tears burn:
He looked deep into the heart of winter, and then he cried out, afraid, and the heat of his tears burned on his cheeks.
Dany is so hot that her tears steam:
She wept for her child, the promise of a sweet mouth on her breast, but her tears turned to steam as they touched her skin.
Loss / Forget
As a consequence of their experiences they both lost something, Bran lost his ability to walk again while Dany lost her family. During their dreams they are both faced with what they have lost, Dany sees her brother, husband, and child while Bran gets a glimpse of who might be responsible for his fall.
Bran III AGOT
"Bran was staring at his arms, his legs. He was so skinny, just skin stretched taut over bones. Had he always been so thin? He tried to remember. A face swam up at him out of the grey mist, shining with light, golden. “The things I do for love,” it said. Bran screamed. The crow took to the air, cawing. Not that, it shrieked at him. Forget that, you do not need it now, put it aside, put it away. It landed on Bran’s shoulder, and pecked at him, and the shining golden face was gone."
Here the crow urges Bran to put those thoughts behind him, remembering what happen won't be useful to him now. He has to focus on putting away that memory he cannot dwell on what happened, at that moment he has to learn how to fly, that is all he should focus on. Forgetting and putting this out of his mind is the only way he can survive at the moment. There are more important things for him to face, like life or death.
With Dany we see her facing her losses:
Dany IX AGOT
"Viserys stood before her, screaming. “The dragon does not beg, slut. You do not command the dragon. I am the dragon, and I will be crowned.” The molten gold trickled down his face like wax, burning deep channels in his flesh. “I am the dragon and I will be crowned!” he shrieked, and his fingers snapped like snakes, biting at her nipples, pinching, twisting, even as his eyes burst and ran like jelly down seared and blackened cheeks.
~*~
Drogo held her in strong arms, and his hand stroked her sex and opened her and woke that sweet wetness that was his alone, and the stars smiled down on them, stars in a daylight sky. “Home,” she whispered as he entered her and filled her with his seed, but suddenly the stars were gone, and across the blue sky swept the great wings, and the world took flame.
~*~
Her son was tall and proud, with Drogo’s copper skin and her own silver- gold hair, violet eyes shaped like almonds. And he smiled for her and began to lift his hand toward hers, but when he opened his mouth the fire poured out. She saw his heart burning through his chest, and in an instant he was gone, consumed like a moth by a candle, turned to ash."
~*~
Drogo held her in strong arms, and his hand stroked her sex and opened her and woke that sweet wetness that was his alone, and the stars smiled down on them, stars in a daylight sky. “Home,” she whispered as he entered her and filled her with his seed, but suddenly the stars were gone, and across the blue sky swept the great wings, and the world took flame.
~*~
Her son was tall and proud, with Drogo’s copper skin and her own silver- gold hair, violet eyes shaped like almonds. And he smiled for her and began to lift his hand toward hers, but when he opened his mouth the fire poured out. She saw his heart burning through his chest, and in an instant he was gone, consumed like a moth by a candle, turned to ash."
Throughout her dream Dany encounter, her brother, her husband, and her son, she sees her brother die once again, she sees her husband fade away, and she sees her son destroyed by the fire. These three people are hugely important to Dany, they represent the only family she has ever known and she is forced to face their deaths. She grieves for them but knows she must continue that she cannot stop. She hears Jorah in the background whispering “the last dragon” and she continues onward despite her grief.
Dany and Bran have to face these temptations, for Bran is about knowing the truth of what really happened to him and for Dany is facing the loss of their family. Having to face these highly traumatic events can be paralyzing, these events were life altering yet putting those things aside, as they did, shows a great deal of strength from both Dany and Bran.
*Sun and Stars
There is no sun, no stars for Bran, they are already gone:
“There was no sun, no stars, only the ground below coming up to smash him...”
Dany gets to have them for just a moment before they are taken away:
“She saw sunlight on the Dothraki sea, the living plain, rich with the smells of earth and death.... and the stars smiled down on them, stars in a daylight sky... but suddenly the stars were gone, and across the blue sky swept the great wings, and the world took flame.”
Urgency
As their dreams progress they begins to build up momentum, Bran’s falling more rapidly, Dany’s running faster and faster, death is gunning for them both. The urgency is not only their fear of what may lay in the darkness but also they are both being urged onwards by others.
Bran III AGOT
“Now you know, the crow whispered as it sat on his shoulder. Now you know why you must live.
“Why?” Bran said, not understanding, falling, falling.
Because winter is coming…
~*~
There was nothing below him now but snow and cold and death, a frozen wasteland where jagged blue-white spires of ice waited to embrace him. They flew up at him like spears. He saw the bones of a thousand other dreamers impaled upon their points. He was desperately afraid.
Can a man still be brave if he’s afraid? he heard his own voice saying, small and far away. And his father’s voice replied to him. That is the only time a man can be brave. Now, Bran, the crow urged.
Choose. Fly or die."
“Why?” Bran said, not understanding, falling, falling.
Because winter is coming…
~*~
There was nothing below him now but snow and cold and death, a frozen wasteland where jagged blue-white spires of ice waited to embrace him. They flew up at him like spears. He saw the bones of a thousand other dreamers impaled upon their points. He was desperately afraid.
Can a man still be brave if he’s afraid? he heard his own voice saying, small and far away. And his father’s voice replied to him. That is the only time a man can be brave. Now, Bran, the crow urged.
Choose. Fly or die."
All at once Bran is bombarded with his fears, his loss and the terrible knowledge that awaits him. Time is running out as he’s falling quickly onto the icy death waiting to embrace him. Bran has been afraid to fly, because he doesn’t believe he can, he doesn’t believe in himself. But the crow who has been urging him to fly, finally tells him to choose, he either flies or he dies.
Daenerys IX AGOT
"Ghosts lined the hallway, dressed in the faded raiment of kings. In their hands were swords of pale fire. They had hair of silver and hair of gold and hair of platinum white, and their eyes were opal and amethyst, tourmaline and jade. “Faster,” they cried, “faster, faster.” She raced, her feet melting the stone wherever they touched. “ Faster! ” the ghosts cried as one, and she screamed and threw herself forward."
Dany had been running from the terrible cold death behind her but now she is racing urged on by what appears to be her ancestors. Faster they yell at her, like with Bran; time here is of the essence. Dany can feel this urgency, unlike Bran she’s not afraid because she doesn’t believe in herself, she’s afraid of what’s coming for her, she’s afraid she won’t reach home before the darkness engulfs her.
Why the sudden urgency? Well, it’s like what the Three-Eyed Crow told Bran, winter is coming and they must be prepared. There is not time to waste; the carefree life of summer has come to an end. We should note that Bran is being urged on by his future mentor, while Dany is being urged on by her family (and Quaithe*). For Bran his abilities as a greenseer will define him, while Dany is defined by who she is, by her family, her heritage.
*There is an interesting phrase used at the end of this dream that we will see repeated in Dany’s last chapter in ADWD:
AGOT:
“After that, for a long time, there was only the pain, the fire within her, and the whisperings of stars.”
ADWD:
“Quaithe?” Dany called. “Where are you, Quaithe?”
Then she saw. Her mask is made of starlight.
“Remember who you are, Daenerys,” the stars whispered in a woman’s voice. “The dragons know. Do you?
Then she saw. Her mask is made of starlight.
“Remember who you are, Daenerys,” the stars whispered in a woman’s voice. “The dragons know. Do you?
Note that in the first instance the stars whispered after she had become a dragon and in the second they are reminding her of whom she is, a dragon.
Transformation
The lives they once knew are gone, never to come back again. Dany and Bran now have to embark on a new path. In their dreams they become a Dragon and a Winged Wolf, although they are temporarily weakened by their trials, they have also been strengthen by them.
Bran III AGOT
"Death reached for him, screaming.
Bran spread his arms and flew.
Wings unseen drank the wind and filled and pulled him upward. The terrible needles of ice receded below him. The sky opened up above. Bran soared. It was better than climbing. It was better than anything. The world grew small beneath him.
“I’m flying!” he cried out in delight.”
As he comes face to face with death itself Bran chooses to fly, he chooses to live. He let go of his fears and learned to believe in himself, in a way he also learned to believe in the impossible. Transforming himself from a boy to a Winged Wolf he gained something better than his ability to walk, as he says, flying was better than climbing. At this moment Bran feels literally on top of the world, however, when he wakes from this dream he will struggle greatly with his inability to walk. Although the magical awakening has happened the transition and transformation will take a lot more time.
Daenerys IX AGOT
"And Daenerys Targaryen flew. wake the dragon The door loomed before her, the red door, so close, so close, the hall was a blur around her, the cold receding behind. And now the stone was gone and she flew across the Dothraki sea, high and higher, the green rippling beneath, and all that lived and breathed fled in terror from the shadow of her wings.”
As she is racing down the corridor she is so hot that she’s melting the stone beneath her feet. She throws herself forward with a scream and she is transformed; now she is a dragon. She so wants to reach that red door, the idea of home is such an integral part of her and her identity; it is what she wants in her heart of hearts. As Dany embraces her inner dragons she goes on to wake actual dragons from stone, but like Bran her transition also takes time. It won’t be until the very end of ADWD that Dany will come to fully embrace her role as the Mother of Dragons. Of note when Dany finally accepts that she is the Mother of Dragon she also changes her way of thinking, sense the moment of her fevered dream she had told herself that if she looked back she would be lost, however, at the very moment she accepts who she is she changes her way of thinking, she tells her self that to go forward she must go back.
As Dany is flying she mentions how everything that lives ad breaths runs in terror from the shadow of her wings (i.e. Drogon “The Winged Shadow” Targaryen). Bran expresses a similar sentiment while warged into Summer in a later chapter, he says: “He was strong and swift and fierce, and all the lived in the good green world went in fear of him.” This reminds us that magical can be great but it can also be terrible.
The magic has now awakened within Dany and Bran; they have both learned to fly. But this is just the beginning for them; the transition from their magical awakening to the acceptance of their gifts and responsibilities was a journey for the two of them. We will now look at this journey and where it has taken them and what they have learned along the way.
A Magical Journeys
The magical journey the Dany and Bran undergo is very much in the model of a heroes journey. They get the call, they refuses and finally they learn to accept it. In contrast to their characters Dany journey is taking her closer towards home while Bran’s journey has taken him far away from his home. We will look at their magical journeys through the initial phases of the hero’s journey.
The Call
In the typical outline for the heroes journey, The Call To Adventure is usually described as: “Something shakes up the situation, either from external pressures or from something rising up from deep within, so the hero must face the beginnings of change.” As it so happens both Dany and Bran experience both external pressure, Bran’s fall and Dany’s miscarriage, as well as internal, Bran’s coma dream and Dany’s fevered dream.
Daenerys’ Call
Dany’s journey as a dragonlord begins with a dragon call. Right before her wedding to khal Drogo Dany has a dragon dream in which a black dragon appears whiles she is being attacked by Viserys in the dream.
Daenerys II AGOT
"Yet that night she dreamt of one. Viserys was hitting her, hurting her. She was naked, clumsy with fear. She ran from him, but her body seemed thick and ungainly. He struck her again. She stumbled and fell. “You woke the dragon,” he screamed as he kicked her. “You woke the dragon, you woke the dragon.” Her thighs were slick with blood. She closed her eyes and whimpered. As if in answer, there was a hideous lipping sound and the crackling of some great fire. When she looked again, Viserys was gone, great columns of flame rose all around, and in the midst of them was the dragon. It turned its great head slowly. When its molten eyes found hers, she woke, shaking and covered with a fine sheen of sweat."
This call is the beginning of a series of calls by the “old powers” trying to push Dany in the right direction, to help bring the dragons back.
The second call is during another dragon dream where the black dragon miraculously appears once again and heals Dany after a series of painful days of riding. Afterwards, she begins to connect with one of the eggs, the one that shares the same coloring as the dragon that Dany saw in her dream. When she touches the egg, it feels warm to the touch which seems very strange to Dany.
Daenerys IV AGOT
“I was,” she answered, standing over the dragon’s eggs that Illyrio had given her when she wed. She touched one, the largest of the three, running her hand lightly over the shell. Black-and-scarlet, she thought, like the dragon in my dream. The stone felt strangely warm beneath her fingers…or was she still dreaming? She pulled her hand back nervously.”
The dream is yet another clue that the old powers have awoken and are trying to awaken the magic within Dany. The calls became stronger as the series progresses, to the point where it started to manifest through Dany.
Daenerys VI AGOT
"Was it madness that seized her then, born of fear? Or some strange wisdom buried in her blood? Dany could not have said. She heard her own voice saying, “Ser Jorah, light the brazier.” “Khaleesi?” The knight looked at her strangely. “It is so hot. Are you certain?” She had never been so certain. “Yes. I…I have a chill. Light the brazier.”
Just as Dany said it was almost like the old powers acted through her at that moment, giving her the instinct to perform an action she had never learned from anywhere. The old powers were calling but she had not yet answered.
Bran’s Call
Ban’s call begins early in his story. After he is thrown for the tower at Winterfell he is contacted by the Tree-eyed Crow through his coma dream. His call to adventure, however, becomes more serious in A Clash of Kings when his powers begin to manifest through his bond to Summer and his wolf dreams. This is later amplified with the arrival of Jojen Reed to Winterfell. The old power, The Children of the Forrest, are working with the Tree-eyed Crow who in turn is communicating through Jojen the need for Bran to accept the call.
Bran IV ACOK
“Sitting cross-legged under the weirwood, Jojen Reed regarded him solemnly. “It would be good if you left Winterfell, Bran.” “It would?” “Yes. And sooner rather than later.”
Jojen also tells Bran a dream which seemed to be from the Three-eyed Crow.
Bran IV ACOK
“Jojen’s eyes were the color of moss, and sometimes when he looked at you he seemed to be seeing something else. Like now. “I dreamed of a winged wolf bound to earth with grey stone chains,” he said. “It was a green dream, so I knew it was true. A crow was trying to peck through the chains, but the stone was too hard and his beak could only chip at them.” “Did the crow have three eyes?” Jojen nodded.”
From the dream it seems as if the Three-eyed Crow’s call is for Bran to leave Winterfell. His intervention in pecking the pecks seem to point that out and the chains not being broken shows that it is up to Bran to answer his call despite the intervention from the Three-eyed Crow.
Bran’s call to leave Winterfell also seems to manifest itself through his wolf dream at the start of A Clash of King’s, in his dream Bran/ Summer yearn for freedom to leave Winterfell.
Bran I ACOK
“Winterfell, he remembered, the sound coming to him suddenly. Beyond its sky-tall man-cliffs the true world was calling, and he knew he must answer or die.”
The call to both characters involve different things. For Dany is the call the awoken the dragons once agin, both the literal dragons and the one inside her. For Bran is to go to “the true world” beyond the Wall in the deep North and take his place as a greenseer.
Refusal of the Call
As with most call’s the is a refusal, the outline tells out that:“The hero feels the fear of the unknown and tries to turn away from the adventure, however briefly. Alternately, another character may express the uncertainty and danger ahead.” Both Dany and Bran refuse their calls out of fear of the unknown.
Dany’s Refusal
Dany refuses the call on three different occasions. Dany’s first case of refusing the call occurs after she has her second dragon dream. When she connects the similarity between the black dragon and the black egg and feels the strange warmness of the egg. This makes her back away the chapter reads: “she pulled her hand nervously” which indicates her mixed emotions of doubt and belief with this encounter.
She refusal the call for the second time after she puts the eggs in the brazier:
Daenerys VI AGOT
"She watched until the coals had turned to ashes. Drifting sparks floated up and out of the smokehole. Heat shimmered in waves around the dragon’s eggs. And that was all. Your brother Rhaegar was the last dragon, Ser Jorah had said. Dany gazed at her eggs sadly. What had she expected? A thousand thousand years ago they had been alive, but now they were only pretty rocks. They could not make a dragon. A dragon was air and fire. Living flesh, not dead stone."
For a second she had hoped that she could hatch the dragons, after realizing she could not she is filled with disappointment and dissolution. Giving up the thought as a silly idea.
Finally, Dany’s third refusal is a bit unorthodox. After hatching the dragons and becoming the Mother of Dragons she tries to lock away her dragons. Faced with what the dragons are capable of she becomes afraid once again. She thinks to herself:
Daenerys II ADWD
“Mother of monsters. What have I unleashed upon the world? A queen I am, but my throne is made of burned bones, and it rests on quicksand…I am the blood of the dragon, she thought. If they are monsters, so am I.”
Bran’s Refusal
Bran like Dany also initially refuses the call. When Jojen suggest that he must leave Winterfell in order to open his third eye and that this is a requirement in order for Bran to break his chains. Bram, however, ignores him.
Bran IV ACOK
"Summer got to his feet. “I don’t need to see so far.” Bran made a nervous smile. “I’m tired of talking about crows. Let’s talk about wolves. Or lizard-lions. Have you ever hunted one, Meera? We don’t have them here.”
Bran’s dislike for Jojen also played a role in him refusing to accept the call.
Answer to the Call
Finally, Dany and Bran eventually accept to answer the call. The outline tells us that the “Heroes may also need to answer Calls to Adventure where physical lives and even the fate of the world are at stake. These Heroes must learn to accept the sacrifice of life and limb for the service of others.”
Dany Answers the Call
After Dany’s fevered dream she finds out that both her unborn son and her husband khal Drogo have died. From the dream and all the events she has gone through she puts the pieces of the puzzle together and believes that it is her calling to hatch the dragon eggs.
Daenerys X AGOT
“She told herself that there were powers stronger than hatred, and spells older and truer than any the maegi had learned in Asshai. The night was black and moonless, but overhead a million stars burned bright. She took that for an omen. No soft blanket of grass welcomed them here, only the hard dusty ground, bare and strewn with stones. No trees stirred in the wind, and there was no stream to soothe her fears with the gentle music of water. Dany told herself that the stars would be enough.”
By using the maegi, and Khal Drogo as a sacrifice Dany performs a ritual to hatch the dragon eggs. This also shows that she had accepted her call and now believes all her previous encounters with her dragon eggs happened for a particular reason.
Daenerys X AGOT
“She had sensed the truth of it long ago, Dany thought as she took a step closer to the conflagration, but the brazier had not been hot enough. ……This is a wedding, too, she thought. Mirri Maz Duur had fallen silent. The godswife thought her a child, but children grow, and children learn.”
The ritual works and three dragon eggs are hatched. The hatching of the eggs marks the beginning of a magical journey for Dany and her dragons.
Dany once again is faced with answering the call while lost in the Dothraki sea. After another important epiphany, which she received through her Vision Quest, she finally comes to truly accept the call:
Daenerys X ADWD
“She stank of blood and sweat and fear, but none of that mattered. “To go forward I must go back,” she said.”
She was ready to embrace her role as the Mother of Dragons and continue her journey now as a fully bonded dragonlord.
Bran Answer the Call
Just like Dany, Bran also comes to acceptt his call. From one of the quotes above we see that Jojen told Bran that he must open his third eye in order to break the chain. This is also similar to what the Three-eyed Crow also told him to do. Despite Bran’s initial refusal to listen to Jojen he eventually opens his third eye.
Bran’s third eye opening is marked by his growing control of learning to warg Summer.
Bran VII ACOK
He closed his third eye and opened the other two, the old two, the blind two. In the dark place all men were blind. But someone was holding him. He could feel arms around him, the warmth of a body snuggled close. He could hear Hodor singing “Hodor, hodor, hodor,” quietly to himself.
Bran also leaves Winterfell, which symbolizes his chain being broken and him accepting his call.
Bran VII ACOK
“At the edge of the wolfswood, Bran turned in his basket for one last glimpse of the castle that had been his life. Wisps of smoke still rose into the grey sky, but no more than might have risen from Winterfell’s chimneys on a cold autumn afternoon. Soot stains marked some of the arrow loops, and here and there a crack or a missing merlon could be seen in the curtain wall, but it seemed little enough from this distance. Beyond, the tops of the keeps and towers still stood as they had for hundreds of years, and it was hard to tell that the castle had been sacked and burned at all. The stone is strong, Bran told himself, the roots of the trees go deep, and under the ground the Kings of Winter sit their thrones. So long as those remained, Winterfell remained. It was not dead, just broken. Like me, he thought. I’m not dead either.”
Bran leaving Winterfell is the beginning of his magical journey, he is accompanied on this adventure by Summer, Hodor, Meera and Jojen Reed.
Conclusion
The magical awakening of Dany and Bran is shown as a microcosm of their magical journey. Their dreams were maps that helped guide them on their journey. Although they are both devastated by the price they had to pay, they learned how to become stronger because of it. Like most journeys theirs were a learning experience, preparation for what's to come. By the end of ADWD Dany and Bran have come to truly accept who they are, this is an important moment for the two of them. Accepting themselves will allow them to head onto the next phase of their journey, whatever that may be.